Dear Design Wild Friends & Loved Ones,
This past year has been a hell of a trip, stressful for so many of us. It has all brought me a LOT closer to the importance of plants. I've been learning from these lush comrades who live among us. They just have so many lessons to teach us! Whether it's creating a public green space or a peaceful residential garden, adding a little life to a museum show or someone’s home, the magic of plants radiates through it all.
This bit of WILD in our world brings peace, breath and a little wonder to our lives and our city. And with it, so many lessons. The first lesson comes from the intimately new spring oak leaf. Unfurling her tiny self, she shows us how to start fresh, to continually begin again, with courage. Next, the abundance of summer flowers in deep red, glowing purple and hot pink show us how to go no-holds-barred and give life all we've got. Later in the season, the beautifully senescing autumn leaves can teach us the ever difficult lesson of letting go, of surrender. And just as the first snows begin to fall, the fall-planted bulbs that we dig into the cold soil as darkness descends stand as an animated act of faith that the beginning will come again.
We are now in the darkness of the year, but there is no fear in this darkness. We gather the lessons from our flora friends to rest, to reflect and to strategize (you know the trees are strategizing!), and we prepare for the spring to come…
Here in the darkness is where the new begins.
-shanti
WHAT WE ARE UP TO
HOME BECOMES A HAVEN
DESIGN WILD was introduced to this rooftop in 2012 and we have been caring for it ever since. We have slowly made additions, first to the plant choices and then by adding new containers and of course, a little of our signature WILD. We love the combination of the purple smoke bush paired with the variegated red-twig dogwood, the evergreen texture of a pine tree with the nearly ever flowering Catnip in the foreground. The varying heights of these trees and shrubs create a border with a playfully porous edge that creates a feeling of privacy while maintaining a connection to the city. Read more...
GOING WILD FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING
For the past several years, Design Wild has been working with a development team on a new twelve-story apartment building being constructed in Midtown Manhattan. The building will contain 100% affordable units in a wide range of incomes. Not only affordable, it's also going to be gorgeous! We're finishing up designs for two different roof decks and a community park complete with play areas for children, meadow and forest landscapes, eating nooks, and spaces to catch the long views of the Hudson River. Stay tuned as the design phase culminates and the installs begin this spring! Read more...
DESIGN WILD GROWS
Design Wild is excited to introduce our newest team member Kate Selden. Kate brings a ton of care and strategy to the team with her own mix of hard work and magic powers. Learn more about Kate....
